Whaaaaaaaaat. Alex having never been to Disney land or world was expected, considering his background, but that didn't stop the privileged part of Margo's psyche from gasping internally in horror at the fact. "Would it sound like a better idea if I said we were going, Disney for disney's sake?" she asked, just to clarify that they were indeed going. "Because feel free to, but I was just kidding about the stress relief."

That was the thing about Alex, that he took things so much at face value. She knew no other way of communication but this half sarcastic and half sincere banter, but it made it hard for anybody besides her to differ between the two. What was she supposed to say, though, and how could she be serious without being either confusing or depressing?

Counseling was so not her thing.

"I get you," said the girl with a sigh at her own incapability, in regards to not being able to retreat. She liked being relatively anonymous herself, and Alex probably so much so more. "Rolling with the simile, though. Why? Here's your positive thinking," and a dash of said positivity filled the atmosphere, "so what's the bear, where's your stick?"

"Would it sound like a better idea if I said we were going, Disney for Disney's sake? Because feel free to, but I was just kidding about the stress relief."

"Oh, heh, sorry. I really need to get better at hearing sarcasm. Yeah, maybe it'd be fun." He shrugged his shoulders, a little abashed about not spotting the joking tone before. He was still learning, still picking up on more of the subtleties. It was frustrating not always getting it but he had to keep trying. Not if he was ever going to obtain some semblance of normalcy.

"I get you...Rolling with the simile, though. Why? Here's your positive thinking, so what's the bear, where's your stick?"

She was getting better at using her mutation. She didn't even ask this time, just merely lifted his spirits. He made a mental note to make this up to her. Her power was a god send, it really was. If she hadn't shown up...well he'd probably be a nervous wreck under the table right now. "The bear is the world, I guess. The trial, the jury, the internet. There are just so many eyes on this event, on me." It was just all too big for him to really get a grasp on.

He took a moment to think on the second part. "As for the stick...you could say it's the truth of the event, or the people who are on my side. Not for nothing, but I don't know how to...use connections, people, to my advantage. It's an unwieldy, awkward...fragile weapon. I've seen other people master it with ease, but..." He stopped, refusing to think on how former 'sticks' had splintered when things got hard. It was times like these he wished they were still around, they would know what to do, they could handle this.

It'd be fun, maybe? Yeah? It wasn't called the Magic Kingdom for nothing, was all Margo would point out. Along with taking Alex on a mall date and a gelato outing, her resolve to secure a trip to Disney for the two of them increased.

"I'll let you in on a secret, Alex, the world's always going to be against you." So much for positive thinking, but it was the truth and they were going to face it. "Murphy's law. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. The universe is screwed up and I'm not going to pretend people are any better," case in point her own privileged self, ignoring Alex for so long and now delivering an entirely unhelpful rant, "but for or against you or just a gawker, stop dramatizing us."

Prompted the girl, feet against the back of the armchair, elbows propped on knees, chin on interlaced fingers, "But...?"

"I'll let you in on a secret, Alex, the world's always going to be against you. Murphy's law. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong. The universe is screwed up and I'm not going to pretend people are any better, but for or against you or just a gawker, stop dramatizing us."

Part of him wanted to snarl, wanted to storm away from her. He knew very well just how messed up the world was, just how wrong things could go. The point he had been trying to get at was that he just wanted it to stop. He wanted what other people had, he wanted to be normal. It wasn't a dramatization to say that he was feeling crushed in this latest cycle of trauma. He wanted to say all of this, but instead merely narrowed his eyes momentarily. Her relaxing mutation kept him calm, kept all that anger, frustration, and fear at bay. He noted that she probably had no idea how powerful she really was.

"But...?"

It was a simple prodding, but he wasn't about to deny her. He had given away this much after all. "They break, snap under pressure so easily that sometimes I wonder if it's just not possible to fight back with it. Or maybe it's me, maybe there's something wrong with me." Oh, there were probably, definitely, a lot of things wrong with him. If it weren't for the fact that he was currently parentless, any responsible adult would probably send him the loony bin. Hell he may still end up there when all of this was said and done. "What am I supposed to do Margo? Just trust that everything is going to be alright? That this won't end in disaster?"

She'd upset him. It probably wasn't such a hard thing to do these days, what with what it seemed everybody knew was going on, but Margo felt the shift in attitude and felt guilty nonetheless. "Sorry? Alex, all I meant to say was that you don't need to be scared of the people. You're not the judge of them and they're not the judge of you, if that's hard to believe."

Now it was the polar opposite of positive thinking crowding into her head; with one last flicker, the girl pulled back her bubble of encouragement and the rest of that. She put her head in her hands and tried so, so hard to process Alex's words.

"They break, snap under pressure so easily that sometimes I wonder if it's just not possible to fight back with it. Or maybe it's me, maybe there's something wrong with me."

"What am I supposed to do Margo? Just trust that everything is going to be alright? That this won't end in disaster?"

When she finally met his eyes again, it was from behind laced fingers, that he might not see all of her expression-- specifically, the effort she was making to think straight through a cloud of mutation induced hopelessness. She supposed it was good for Alex to just talk these feelings out, but what sort of incompetent therapist was she?

"You're a survivor in a way I can't understand," said Margo at long last, "in a way that I admire. There's nothing I can say for sure to trust in... but will you at least try to remember that?"

"Sorry? Alex, all I meant to say was that you don't need to be scared of the people. You're not the judge of them and they're not the judge of you, if that's hard to believe."

Lies. People judge, it's what people did all the time. It was a basic survival mechanism to judge not just the environment but those around them. Who could harm, who could save, who would annoy, who could be friends. For most of his life most people judged him as null, unimportant, a nobody. At best an icon of momentary pity and easily forgotten minuets later, at worst a potential threat due to the desperation of his situation but just as easily forgotten in time. Being temporary was his saving grace, an nameless, faceless teen no one cared about.

But these past few months had brought him unwillingly into the light. For all his clawing and clinging to shadows, it seemed he had made continuous mistakes at keeping his face hidden. His only hope was that the trial went well and he would be given time to hide from the public eye. It was seemingly unlikely though.

"You're a survivor in a way I can't understand, in a way that I admire. There's nothing I can say for sure to trust in... but will you at least try to remember that?"

A survivor, she wasn't the first to say that. It was a common thread through his whole life. But he didn't know how long he wanted it to be that way. He didn't just want to survive, he wanted to have a life. He didn't want to be jealous of others, of their families, their normal routines, their perfect nearly predictable lives. He didn't want to be on the outside looking in any more.

Look at Margo, it seemed all this was hurting her head just as much as his. It wasn't fair to unload all of this on her. She hardly had anything to do with this. He sighed, slowly standing and stretching. He had been sitting at that desk for too long. "I will...I think I'll go take a nap, instead of sleeping at the desk."he said giving her a small smile, hoping to reassure her. "Thanks for everything Margo, your power is amazing and it really helped."

He gave her a small pat on the shoulder before walking off. He would go back to the room, perhaps do what he said he'd do, but it was unlikely he'd get any rest any time soon.

(Ooc: Hey, you can continue after this or not. Either way is up to you.)